Throne of the North

"Hahaha, Ryan, come here, this is horse milk specially transported from the south. If it weren't easy to preserve in the North Wind Province, you might not be able to wait for it, haha."

Hatton was attentive and poured the snow-white horse milk for Ryan, and there were several good-looking maids holding iron kettles and waiting obediently beside him.

Ryan was not polite at all to Hatton's courtesy, after all, he hadn't eaten such food for a long time.

What's more, after becoming a knight, his appetite increased greatly, almost three to five times that of ordinary people.

Not only food, but even the bed of Baron Hatton's territory was countless times softer than the hard bed board of the frozen land territory. Ryan felt that he had never slept on such a comfortable bed since he crossed over.

"Soon, I will have it too."

Without any nostalgia for the soft bed, Ryan opened the door and went to the soldiers' training camp.

Here, Ryan saw the only knight in Baron Hatton's territory, White Brin.

A knight with a surname, yes, his ancestor was once a noble, but he fell into decline. White became the knight of Baron Hatton, and he might have intended to restore the glory of the Brin family by giving him a piece of territory from Baron Hatton in the future.

But Ryan felt that White's generation had no chance, because Baron Hatton was like this, and being able to keep his baronship was already a name in the family tree.

Want him to work hard?

Ryan glanced at the maids coming in and out in the distance and shook his head.

"Knight White, do you know how many soldiers Knight Water has?"

"Meet Baron Ryan." Knight White respectfully performed a standard knight's salute, and it seemed that Ryan's gentle appearance now made him a little flattered.

After taking a look at Brand, who was standing behind Ryan and never leaving his side, White said:

"Knight Water has a total of one hundred soldiers, of which only twenty are trainee knights, and the rest are just trained militiamen."

Ryan nodded, and then asked:

"What about the slaves?"

He knew very well that the number of soldiers that these lords could raise was not the number they seemed on the surface.

Every time there was a war, the lord would pull the slaves to the battlefield, and when the war was over, the surviving slaves would return to the mines or farmland.

In short, the main thing was a chicken-pecking game.

Ryan could guess the one hundred people White mentioned. I'm afraid that except for the twenty trainee knights, the remaining eighty militiamen were only half-time.

"One hundred capable soldiers." Ryan looked here, and the situation in Baron Hatton's territory was much better than that of Knight Water's territory, thanks to Baron Hatton's good father.

"Baron Hatton has a total of 120 soldiers, all wearing armor, and 30 of them are apprentice knights." When White said this, his tone was a little proud, because this was all his credit.

Ryan didn't know why he was so proud. He was obviously stronger, but he was always defeated by Knight Water.

"Go and wake up Baron Hatton. It's time to set off."

After a long time, Baron Hatton finally appeared in front of Ryan, yawning.

The two barons walked in the front, and soon, a mighty group of five or six hundred people swaggered to the center of the conflict between Baron Hatton and Knight Water.

A small iron mine, although it was a small iron mine, also made the baron and the knight earn a lot of money.

...

Riding on a highland warhorse from the south, Ryan couldn't help but touch the mane of the warhorse with envy.

Can a knight without a mount be called a knight? Can a noble without a mount be a noble?

Baron Hatton has nothing else, but he is good at reading people's expressions, which is the basic skill of every noble.

He patted the brown warhorse under him with some pride and said:

"Ryan, the city of Lingdu where Viscount Miles is located will send hundreds of highland warhorses from the south every spring. If you are interested, you can ask the servants to wait for them."

"But the value of each highland warhorse is not low, and it will not be enough without a few hundred gold coins."

To put it bluntly, Hatton still couldn't help showing off his property, and Ryan couldn't help but be amazed when he heard these words.

A warhorse can actually be sold for hundreds of gold coins in this North Wind Province. It seems that distance can really create wealth.

According to his memory, the price of an adult warhorse in the south of the empire should be between dozens of gold coins and a hundred gold coins, and it can be ten times higher when it comes to the border of the empire.

However, as far as he knows, there is indeed no place to produce horses in the North Wind Province, even if there is a plain here.

It's still the same problem, it's too cold.

Distance and coldness lead to the high cost of warhorses.

Because it is very expensive, even in the Barony of Hatton, there are only five horses.

Barons Ryan and Hatton naturally cannot walk on their own legs. Apart from them, there are Knight White and Baron Hatton's eldest son, Lane Hatton.

Lane Hatton is only one or two years younger than Ryan, but his aristocratic education still makes him look mature, so when he looks at Ryan, he has envy in his eyes.

There is still a gap between the heir of the barony and the baron, especially since they both look like teenagers.

The last warhorse is under Brand. This guardian knight is the one who loves the warhorse the most among the few people, and the magical thing is that the warhorse under him seems to enjoy Brand's touch.

Hatton couldn't help laughing when he saw this scene, "Ryan, it seems that you have to prepare a good mount for your knight!"

Ryan didn't refute, but began to ask about the situation of Lingdu City.

For that city, he only knew that it was the closest city to the frozen land and the Baron of Hatton.

Viscount Miles was the owner of that city, and he was also the governor of Lingdu County, one of the seven governors of the North Wind Province.

The viscounty of Viscount Miles spread out with that city as the center, and in the entire Lingdu County, in addition to Viscount Miles, there was a viscount and seventeen or eighteen baronies, and a similar number of knights.

The entire empire has a very simple administrative division from top to bottom, that is, the empire-province-county-village and town. In almost every place in the south of the empire, even the villages and towns, are ruled by nobles, and in addition to these administrative divisions, there are some territories that belong to the nobles themselves.

For example, the four grand dukes of the empire all live in their own grand dukedoms, and some earls and even viscounts are like this.

These noble territories do not belong to the administrative division of the empire. They are considered as countries within countries. Without exception, they all have one thing in common.

That is the confidence brought by strength.

You know, for example, if Viscount Miles has a county-level city like Lingdu City in his territory, he can collect taxes from the city every year.

This is also an important source of income for the Miles family. The viscount attaches great importance to this city.

Some nobles want to occupy such a city, so that the family will have sufficient economic sources, while some nobles, because of their own strength, look down on these cities that belong to them and the empire.

Thinking of this, Ryan couldn't help but guess in his heart.

"I wonder if the Viscount Dragun in Lingdu County is the former or the latter?"